In the session at the running time, the Litfest 2021 where he launched his latest memo ‘how I accidentally became a global stock photo’, the author Shubnum Khan took us together on his way through life in a conversation with the Natasha Badhwar columnist.
Travel, not the easy, foiled by social preparations, inequality, stereotypes, trolling, loneliness, depression, apartheid and bias but also self-discovery, because it turns it into someone like that.
Combating the road through life, Shubnum shared how he was declared a tragedy at his birth to become the fourth girl in a patriarchy, Muslim household but decided to oppose it.
“Right now I only know that I should be a tragedy but I don’t,” Shubnum wrote in the closing line of the first chapter of his new release.
Misogyny who spread widely that Shubnum fell prey, also haunted Natasha after he became the mother of three daughters.
In his book, ‘my daughter’ he shared many misogyny who still existed in the community, and how his writing, like Shubnum, came from the pain he felt when he saw disappointment in the eyes of people.
Identity questions have been explored in Shubnum’s new book when he wrote about his life where he had to struggle to get out of the boxes he put and carved niche for himself.
Stereotypes and challenging perceptions that limit him, Shubnum talks about growing in South Africa which is separate where apartheid is very hard to wear so he has little or no idea of the existence of other races in the country.
The incident from where the book took his name ‘how I accidentally became a global stock photo’ happened in college, where he signed for a photo shoot as part of a college project but found his photo on any advertising board, hoarding and place where it should be.
The violation of the privacy he had to face was greeted with rumors, humiliation and trolling on social media where he was called ‘reckless and stupid’ for allowing the incident to happen.
Ending all this, Shubnum decided to write about his experience.
“I wrote a series of funny stories just to realize later that it was actually a big story about being brave,” the author said.
His journey through depression and loneliness when he was in China was a stepping stone towards the achievement of self-love, because he was now aware of retrospect.
Solitude, he believed, had helped him see himself as his own person and fostered a healthy relationship with himself.
Only that’s when his struggle for identity ends.
“I finally became single in the community where all your existence is quite placed where you stand in the community whether you have a husband or not, do you have children or not.
But I don’t feel like it must reduce my story, I think that’s the reason I have to tell my story, “Shubnum said happily who believed that his story would encourage others to do it.
(Byline: Bhavya Sharma)
I should be a tragedy: Shubnum
